Searching for the best small-batch, artisanal products to add to your pantry? Our staff scoured the market for you, and we'll be featuring their picks all month long. First up:Santa Fe Olé Green Chile Sauce​, adored by JBF manager of strategic partnerships Michelle Santoro.

“I love the entire line of New Mexican–grown green chile sauces. My husband and I went to Santa Fe a few years ago and fell in love with all things covered in green chile sauce. This summer friends of ours got married and the groom was from Santa Fe, so they gave out jars of these sauces as favors. We took at least ten of them! I like to put the sauce on eggs, on cheeseburgers, in any type of stew that I make, on (and in!) enchiladas, and I also just use it as hot sauce. I bet it would even be amazing on pizza!”

A subtle riff on the classic Old Fashioned, this version—a staple of senior editor Elena North-Kelly’s cocktail repertoire—uses maple syrup in lieu of standard sugar, while handmade cardamom bitters step in for the more traditional Angostura variety, creating a warm, fragrant antidote to late-winter doldrums. Get the recipe here.

Elena North-Kelly is senior editor at the James Beard Foundation. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Here's what's coming up at the James Beard House and around the country:

Tuesday, February 10, 7:00 P.M.True Tuscan Soul
Take your taste buds to Tuscany with this exquisite dinner from Francesco Bracali and Leonardo Bellacini of the historic San Felice vineyard and medieval hamlet in the heart of Siena. Indulge your wanderlust without spending a cent on airfare and join us for a meal brimming with the bountiful flavors and aromas of the Italian countryside.

JBF Award winner Gavin Kaysen was one of the coaches of the U.S. team that brought home the silver medal from this year’s Bocuse d’Or, the world’s most prestigious cooking competition held biannually in Lyon, France. Kaysen, who won the JBF Rising Star Chef award in 2008, competed in the 2007 Bocuse d'Or, and has been involved with every subsequent American team. In this week's TBT we’re celebrating his hard-fought victory with this video of Kaysen on the red carpet at the JBF Awards in 2009, where he dished on breakfast, Café Boulud, and the significance of presenting the Rising Star category with JBF Award winner Jacques Pépin.

Stay tuned for updates on the 2015 James Beard Awards. The Restaurant and Chef Award semifinalist announcement is coming up on Wednesday, February 18.

Gabe and Katherine Thompson’s intimate downtown restaurants offer discerning New York City diners soulful Italian cuisine with a modern spin. At their recent Beard House reprise, the powerhouse husband-and-wife team crafted a menu of sumptuous fare paired with exquisite wines and cocktails chosen by their talented partner and beverage director, Joe Campanale. Guests kicked off the spirited evening by sipping on Campanale's Aperol spritzes, pictured above. Light, refreshing, and elegant, it was the ideal aperitivo to stimulate the appetite before a luxurious Italian meal.

View this event's menu and details here. For upcoming Beard House dinners, check out our ... Read more >

A snail farmer in Vienna. Growing beneficial begs. Humane meat processing. These are just a few of the subjects explored in the ten short films that have reached the final round of the 2015 Real Food Media Contest. You can now watch the ten finalists on the competition's website, as well as vote for the People's Choice Award. (The James Beard Foundation is one the contest's official media partners, and JBF president Susan Ungaro, along with Tom Colicchio, Michael Pollan, and other food-system advocates, will judge the final films and select the grand price winner.)

Last year's winning film, Homeward, documented a cooperative of oregano farmers in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. Watch it above.

Here's an overview of the contest from the RFMC website:

The 2015 Real Food Media Contest invites a new crop of digital submi... Read more >

Last week we announced that chef and sustainability advocate Michel Nischan will receive our 2015 Humanitarian of the Year award. Right on the heels of this news, the New York Times profiled Nischan in this past weekend's "Download" column. Michel shared tidbits about his choice reads (one of his favorite books is James Beard's Beard on Bread), most cherished kitchen tools, and love of pétanque, the French analog of bocce ball. Read the full piece here.